In the Name of God:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

My summary of today’s Gospel story goes something like this:  Some dope loses a bunch of some big-shot’s money by making bad loans to a bunch of deadbeats.  The big-shot finds out and says, “What are ya doin’?  Show me the books!  You’re fired!”  The dope panics and then comes up with a plan.  He works with the deadbeats and alters the books to show that the deadbeats owe less money than they really do . . . and when the big-shot finds out about THIS, he says, “Good job, that was really smart!”  (!!!!!!!!!)  When I read today’s story I thought, “Great.  I have to say something about a parable that doesn’t make any sense.  Great.”  And the verses that follow this story in the Gospel didn’t help me either.  They only added to my confusion.  “Great. . . .”

So I trotted off to see what various scholars say about the text.  I won’t bore you with too much detail – at least right now – because most of THEM aren’t certain about what’s going on in this passage either.  I can hear one commentator sniffing with disapproval in this quotation:  “The story begins with incompetence and ends with flagrant dishonesty.  If it IS a real parable, we can only GUESS at what truth it is pointing at.”  In fact, it seems that from the time of the earliest Christian commentators this passage has caused confusion.  At this point in my research, I was feeling a little better . . . I mean, it’s not just me . . . NOBODY really gets it.  But then I remembered YOU . . . and remembered that, despite the confusion this text causes, I still should really try to say something about it . . . “Great . . .”.

Well . . . all is not lost . . . don’t get panicky on me . . . I did discover a few things that might help us.  What I discovered are some facts about first-century Palestine and about what a manager’s – or steward’s – job was like then.  Now this is where a little detail DOES come in . . . but I think these details are important to understand what’s goin’ on in today’s story.  You see, one of the reasons that so many earlier commentators had trouble with this passage is that they didn’t know some of the facts I’m gonna lay out for you.  The scholarship now available to us is really quite new and wasn’t available, in some cases, even fifty years ago.  So . . . stick with me.

As you will recall, the hero/dope of our story was a “steward”.  It seems that a steward . . . or a manager . . . was often a slave.  But not a slave as we tend to think of them in the United States.  The “steward” in our story is a slave, but a slave with great liberty and power, a slave who has FULL responsibility for the property entrusted to him.  Such freedom and responsibility were necessary because landowners – like the big-shot in our story – were frequently absentee landlords.

It also seems that steward/managers customarily operated like the tax collectors of the period.  By this I mean that a steward of property was, of course, expected to show a profit for the master, but customarily the steward ALSO reaped a PERSONAL benefit from the use of the master’s property.  Often this was accomplished through loans and the charging of extravagant interest.  For example, I might loan you ten of my master’s dollars, on the condition that you pay me back fifteen dollars:  you give me back the ten original dollars, plus three dollars interest for my master, PLUS two dollars for me . . . a kind of service charge.

The bookkeeping for all this is also an interesting and important detail.  To put it very simply, there were “issues” around the charging of interest in ancient Israel . . . oh, everyone probably did it . . . but, well, perhaps it wasn’t quite “nice” . . . it was, in fact, a sin.  So, going back to my example, when I loaned you the ten dollars, I wouldn’t write down all the details about the loan and how much interest went to whom . . . I’d just write down that you owed a total of fifteen dollars.  (And you thought modern accounting practices were fishy. . . .)

Now, going back to the Gospel story, MAYBE something like this happened:  The big-shot discovers that his steward is a dope – and maybe a crook – and asks to see the books.  The dope doesn’t deny the charges, but he does try to figure out how to save himself . . . he knows that he needs to make some friends FAST . . . ‘cuz he’s out of a job and is gonna need some help.  So he hatches a scheme.  He goes around to all the deadbeats and changes the amount recorded that they owe.   It seems likely to me that, instead of robbing the big-shot, the dope is giving up his personal profit, in the hope of protecting the master’s principal and interest . . . AND in the hope of winning the friendship of the deadbeats, whose debts he’s reducing.  He needs some friends, remember.

Okay, this sounds good from the steward’s point of view.  But what about the big-shot . . . why would he go along with this scheme?  Well, maybe he’s simply hoping that, with a reduced debt load, the deadbeats will actually pay off what they owe.  But there’s something else – something unstated – in the background of this whole story . . . something that everyone in first century Palestine would innately understand.  And this is the question of honor.  One’s personal honor, the honor of one’s family, was of paramount importance in Jesus’ world.  To be regarded with respect, to be held in high regard, was viewed as a kind of wealth.

When the big-shot in today’s story learns about the new deals his steward has arranged, he COULD – legally – refuse to abide by them.  BUT, what would this then do to his HONOR?  You see all the deadbeats are probably already praising the big-shot’s . . . the master’s . . . generosity.  If he allows these new deals to stand, his honor will increase and spread far and wide . . . as will the honor of the steward for arranging the deals.  So, the master says to the steward, “Well done!”  Because everybody wins!  The debtors celebrate because their debt is reduced.  The big-shot gains a whole lot of respect.  And our hero/dope makes some friends who’ll help him out.

Maybe the dope isn’t such a dope after all.  Maybe the dope is actually incredibly PRUDENT.  And here may be the key to the MEANING of the story we heard today.  (FINALLY, you’re probably muttering.)  From what we know about Jesus, we canNOT claim that he would tell a story approving of dishonesty, or of the falsification of records.  And, although he might tell a story about the destructive nature of riches, that doesn’t really seem to be the point of today’s story.  No, it seems to me that it’s the steward’s PRUDENCE that’s the point.  In fact, the word describing the steward’s actions, translated in our reading as ‘shrewdness’, can also be translated as ‘prudence’.

Prudence?  Come again?  For me, the word prudence conjures up associations with caution and precision . . . there’s something small and confined in my sense of the word.  But that’s not the ancient sense of prudence.  In the medieval table of virtues, prudence is the first of the cardinal virtues, immediately following the foundational virtues of faith, hope, and love.  Prudence, in this sense, can be said to be the practical expression of wisdom.  Prudence is the ability to see a situation clearly, without being blinded by fear, or by desire, and to act out of this clear vision, attempting to do what is appropriate.  Prudence is not to be mistaken for caution.  Rather, to quote R. E. C. Browne, “the prudent are known by their promptness, courage, and patience.”[1]

If the Gospel story is a lesson in prudence, what might this then mean for US?

The first of Luke’s little messages added onto his story is, essentially, that we “innocent” Christians can learn a thing or two from the shrewd (prudent?) managers of this world.  Like the steward/manager in the story, we’re called to try to see our situations clearly, and to ACT . . . with alacrity, especially in an emergency.  And, we’re to put our master’s interests first . . . OUR master, of course, being God.  At the same time, this does not mean that we stop taking care of ourselves.  This is one of the many paradoxes we Christians are faced with.  We are taught not to be anxious, to trust in the Lord who will provide for us . . . to surrender our will to God’s will . . . and to put God’s business first.   

Yet, we are not to pretend that we are not human and living in a complicated world.  Now, I know that most of us err on the side of paying TOO much attention to our own fears and desires, and not listening closely enough to God’s voice – I know that I certainly have trouble with this – yet, at the same time that we are struggling to surrender ourselves to God, we must not be foolish.  We must try to see our situations clearly and to act accordingly – to be prudent.

What an extraordinarily difficult challenge.

We should pray – as we do in today’s Collect – asking that, while we are placed among things that are passing away, we be given the grace . . . wisdom and prudence . . . to hold fast to those things that shall endure.  We must not be dreamy or complacent, or muddle headed.  And it IS true that we cannot serve God and money.  Yet we must not be a bunch of dopes.  To quote Prof. Browne again, “The judgment of prudence requires the subtlety of an artist, the precision of a scientist, the clarity of a philosopher, the firmness of a lawyer, the mercy that only the strong can show, the love of a saint, and the humility that no one can make for oneself.”[2]  May each one of us be granted the wisdom we need.

Amen.

Return to Grace Church Newsletter Page